Page 50 of Heartless (Scathing Hearts #1)

Jake

Ron came to join me and Garrett Sullivan by the door of the diner.

Watching Erica’s group, clustered in yet another group hug, he said, “When they’re not quiet, those girls sure do laugh a lot. Erica asked me to order more teddy bears. She said it’s going to be her signature for the hikes.”

When Sienna and I had walked in, Erica had been beaming. The women hadn’t lost time in posting their hike, and social media had spread its fire. Her hikes were fully booked out for the rest of the year, and the waiting list for next year was growing.

Sienna’s tinkling laughter rose from the huddle. I’d often caught my father stop doing whatever he’d been doing to watch my mother with that deeply peaceful expression. And I’d never understood it.

Until now.

Garrett slapped my shoulder. “The teddy bears were my idea. I’m going to collect on the unlimited beer supply Erica owes me.”

Ron shook his head and headed back to the kitchen. Garrett joined the women, and one of them yelled, “Big bear’s here!”

Sienna’s sexy legs detached from the group, and she finally came toward me. Slipping her fingers through mine, she lifted a wide smile.

“We were making plans for an anniversary hike next year.”

“Are you going to do it?”

She giggled. “I have a year to talk myself into it.”

I kissed her smiling lips. “Let’s go, baby.”

****

While I set her bag in the hallway of her condo, her cell rang from her purse.

Like she’d done in the car, she checked the caller and ignored the call.

I followed her into the kitchen where she set her phone on the counter and put the kettle on.

When she pivoted to face me, I caught her hand and caged her against the counter.

“Who’s hassling you?”

She nibbled on her bottom lip. “Gabby. She wants to make peace. She wants us to be friends again. She’s missing me. But all I hear is, ‘me, me, me. But no apology.’”

The cell pinged, this time with a text. Several texts. Bending over the island, her index finger swept up over the device’s screen, and she frowned.

“She says she has urgent news about Nigel.”

Fuck. I had to tell her. “He’s in hospital.”

Her eyes snapped up. “He is?”

“Yeah.”

“So, it’s happening,” she murmured.

Then, she curled her arms around my waist and laid her cheek on my chest.

That shit was bound to affect her. I held her close and kissed her head. “Talk to me, baby.”

She shifted back. “That’s the thing. I have nothing to say. I’m sad because someone I know is dying, but that’s it.”

The chime of her cell went off again. She let out a groan and turned it off.

That pissed off quietness overtook her tone.

“What I don’t get is why freaking Gabby is all in my space about it.

The day I buried my mother she left for a family vacation in Australia she could have easily delayed by one day.

And her explanation was that she felt weird around sad people. Meaning me.”

Christ, that woman was a cunt.

“You’re angry with her.”

After a short pause, she shook her head, and the corner of her mouth twisted. “I’m angry with myself because I saw who she was, but I completely ignored the signs. So, I miss the idea of her. But I really loved that idea. And now she’s apparently shaking her pom-poms for Team Morrison.”

I buried my hands in my pockets to stop myself from laughing. “Apparently.”

The whistle of the kettle made her jump. After removing it from the hot plate, she reached for a mug and tossed a teabag in.

“And then there’s you,” she said with her back to me.

“What about me?”

Pivoting to face me with her mug in hand, she frowned. “She tried to jump your bones.”

She had to stop being so fucking funny.

“Jump my bones?”

Her mouth stretched in a closed lips smile. “You know what I mean.” After adding cold water to her mug, she placed it by the sink. “I know that my great love story wasn’t real, but at the time, my feelings were, and she knew it.”

That was important. I reached for her and trapped her in my arms. “Your great love story?”

Her face flushed. “Mr. Rhodes, you’re gorgeous, outrageously sexy, and you were interested in just me when Gabby was available. Can you really blame me for falling head over heels for the illusion?”

Fuck the illusion. Every fucking part of me was hers.

Blinking slowly, her mouth dropped, and tension tightened her shoulders. “What?”

My tone came out harsher than I’d intended. “How do you feel now, baby?”

At that, she gave me a little smile. “I like the real Jake Rhodes. Very much.”

It wasn’t enough. I wanted that love back. I’d earn it back. “Good.”

I took her mouth, and I did it hard.

****

Sienna’s hair brushed my gut, and I gritted my teeth at the pleasure of her hot mouth. She went down until the head of my cock hit the back of her throat. She pushed past the tight ring, swallowed on the head of my cock, and pleasure shot up my spine.

I fisted her hair. “Come here, baby.”

On a slow glide up, she licked the slit of my cock.

Her mouth was wet and swollen. “It’s my turn. You promised to let me until I can do the deep-throat thing.”

Fuck. How could she make me smile when I was about to come?

“Kitten, you’re fucking doing it.”

She smiled. “I know.”

Then she went for another glide, and my balls tightened.

I jerked deeper into her mouth. “Fuck.” I sat up. “Come here, I’ll eat you while you suck me off.”

Lifting her flushed face, she whispered, “A promise is a promise.”

When she went back at me, she moaned, and the sound vibrated in my balls. Holding her head down, my back arched. “Kitten... Fuck... Fuck.”

I let go and came hard down her throat.

Grinning wide, she kissed my gut. I pulled her up, flipped her down, and spread her legs wide. “My fucking turn.”

Then, I made my kitten purr.

****

“No...no...no.”

I woke up to Sienna’s whimpers.

She was still asleep, but her legs and arms were kicking. I reached for the lamp on the bedside table before locking my arms around her shaking body.

“Baby, wake up, you’re having a nightmare.”

The whimpers turned into sobs. “I don’t want to die... I...”

I pinned her under me. “Sienna, wake-up.”

Her frame suddenly stilled. Her big eyes snapped open. “Jake?”

Terror darkened her eyes. My chest caved in, and I brushed her hair from her damp temples. “You’re okay my butterfly. You’re safe.”

She threw her arms around my neck. Holding her trembling body, I sat up with my back against the bedhead and pulled the comforter around her.

Slowly, her tremors subsided, and I cupped the back of her head. “Tell me, baby.”

“Nigel... My mom... The bear... My house.”

When her tears wetted my skin, I rocked her until she fell asleep.

I kissed her head and listened to her soft breaths. My baby had been through hell. After lying her back down, I switched off the lamp and tucked her to my side.

Her arm squeezed my gut. “Don’t break my heart, Jake.”

The words murmured against my skin stopped everything. “Baby?”

She was asleep. With my chest tight, I touched my head to hers and breathed her in. “I won’t, baby. I fucking swear I never will.”

She’d opened her heart to me again. Settling back, I grinned at the ceiling.

****

I entered the room that had been my father’s where Sienna, seated cross-legged on the terrace floor beside Willie’s wheelchair, was laughing.

Her gaze lifted to mine before she jumped on her feet and looped her arms around my neck.

After a kiss I had to stop unless we were going to give the old man an X-rated show, I shook his hand.

“How are you, man?”

He grinned. “Coming to take your girl from me?”

I tucked Sienna to my side. “We’re going to Cam’s for lunch.”

Willie Devereaux slapped his gut. “That means leftovers next week. Can’t wait, man. Love and good food. All a man needs to reach paradise, and it doesn’t hurt that the old people are jealous of the beauties who visit me.”

When Sienna had told Cam and Jo about Willie’s family, they’d started visiting him too.

He opened his arms. “Give me some sugar, pretty girl.”

Sienna stepped out from under my shoulder to bend at the waist and wrap her arms around the old man. After planting a kiss on his cheek, she stayed at eye-level with him.

“Next time, I’ll have the draft of my first chapters for you.”

Willie notched his chin down. “Looking forward to it, Sienna.”

On one last wave from Sienna, we headed toward the front doors.

In the car, she threw me a smile I felt in my cock. “Willie said you helped him get your father’s old room. That was very kind of you.”

All I’d done was to keep up the payment for the remainder of the year. But that softness in her eyes had just secured the room for the old man for however long he’d need it.

“I can be kind.”

When she touched my jaw and leaned in, my whole body strained toward hers.

“And wonderful,” she whispered.

I kissed her until she moaned in my mouth.

****

After dessert, Sienna, who was curled up against me while Cam and Jo’s low voices filtered from the kitchen, lifted her mouth to my ear. “Is it me or Camila and Jodie are a little tense?”

I’d picked up on that too. “Couples fight, baby.”

Cam’s voice got louder. “That has nothing to do with my feelings for you. Nothing!”

Sienna sat up and whipped her frown at me. “Should we go?”

Jo stomped out of the kitchen closely followed by Cam. Both women’s faces were flushed.

Cam’s woman marched to the couch. “Sienna, what would you say if the person you loved asked you to marry them?”

“Seriously, baby?” Cam hissed.

Jo turned to face her. “I love you, Cami.”

My friend touched her woman’s hand. “I love you, too. And no piece of paper is going to change that.”

“All I want is you.”

Cam cupped her face. “And you’ve got me, honey.”

They kissed, and Sienna grinned before we got up. She cleared her throat, which brought the couple’s attention to us. “We’re going to go, now.”

With their arms around each other, they walked us to my truck, and we got on the road.

After Sienna had put her shades on, I took her hand. “We escaped just before the makeup fuck started.”

Sienna giggled, and fuck but that pretty sound did something to me. Every fucking time.

“I’m kind of glad Camila saved me from answering Jodie’s question.”

“How’s that, baby?”

“Because Jodie was clearly upset, and I didn’t want to add to it by siding with Cam.”

She wriggled her fingers, and I relaxed my grip on them. “You don’t want to get married?”

In a graceful gesture, she pulled her sunglasses up, trapping her silky curls underneath them. “There’s no need for marriage. I think people either commit to a relationship or they don’t.”

I glanced at her clear gaze. “You’re still young.”

Shaking her head slowly, she said, “I honestly don’t think it has anything to do with my age. Gabby and her friends are the same age as me, and most of them have vision boards about their perfect wedding, the perfect dress, the perfect ring. I never did.”

“You said you wanted children.”

That made her chuckle. “I’m living proof that I don’t need to be married for that, neither does the father of my imaginary children.” She shifted in her seat. “Do you want to get married one day?”

With her, I wanted everything. “I think we’re all influenced by our childhoods. My parents had a great marriage before everything went to shit, and I want that.”

She hummed, and after a long pause, she said, “I loved my childhood, and I adored my mom, so the way she lived would definitely influence the decisions I make for myself as an adult.” After a breath, she added, “Food for thought.”

I kissed the back of her fingers. “Yeah?”

“It’s definitely worth discussing,” she replied quietly. “But before all that, there’re tons of things I want to do.”

“Like what?”

“I want to go visit Bianca in Italy, see Europe, and as much of the world as possible. I want to learn how to cook Indian food because Mom and I always had it when we had something to celebrate. I want to go to a rodeo and learn how to ride a horse, and I want to go to a baseball game or a football game. I don’t understand either, so it won’t matter.

And to a concert to feel the crowd around me.

And I want to take proper dancing lessons. ”

While her joyful effervescence filled the truck, I couldn’t help but smile.

“That’s quite the list, baby.”

“Then I want to be somewhere quiet and write about it all.”

And I was going to give her all of it.